Last week Florek ordered one of these in Cote and we loved it. It looked simple enough for a confident cook to try and bake, so I tried- and I succeeded!The recipe I found in BBC Good Food was a red onion and gruyere fougasse, there was some rosemary there too. Not my favourite herb, far too strong and fragrant, so I used a little of my fresh oregano from the garden and also the remaining piece of comte cheese.

It’s not a complicated thing; 250 g of strong bread flour, 8 g of fresh yeast crumbled in. 1 tsp of salt, 0,5 tsp of sugar, 1 tbsp of olive oil. 200 ml of warm water, one needs to be careful though, as the mixture is extremely wet and fiddly, I added about 2 more tbsps of flour to get it together, so probably about 150 ml would do. Kitchen Aid worked it for a few minutes, then I left it under cling film for an hour, shaped it into a leaf and got it ready for baking:

Some rock salt was sprinkled on top, as well as a brush of garlic olive oil. 220 degrees, 12-15 minutes.

It’s lovely and will be made again, but it’s a great idea to brush with olive oil again AFTER baking. Great starter. 🙂

Like I said in the last post, I need to be careful with all those butter cookies. I was so careful this morning, that I baked some more. But I had to, really, no choice, as last night in Polish Deli I found some good quality jam with forest fruit, bought 2 jars and simply had to try to recreate the cookies from Conad in Gallicano.

The shortbread recipe is the same as in the double dipped cookies, with 30 g less sugar. Good call, I think, while munching on one of them now, the jam is quite sweet, so the shortbread didn’t have to be. 200 g softened salted butter, 70 g of icing sugar creamed in kitchen aid with vanilla paste, 250 g of plain flour, 2 tbsps of milk. Half of the cookies cut with apple corer….:-) 160 degrees, 15 minutes. Sandwiched with the jam, gently softened now. Delicious.

I need to be careful with the amount of butter cookies I consume lately, my weight and figure are both very pleasant at the moment, must make sure they stay this way.

I couldn’t resist this recipe though, I even purchased a small jar of Nutella, though none of us is a massive fan in this house- and then ended up not using any!!! The original recipe makes these cookie sandwiches filled with Nutella, but in my view they stand their ground so well, they don’t need anything else. I gave some to Keava and Simon, who will look after Dusty this weekend.

120 g of soft butter creamed with the same amount of brown and caster sugar, which I reduced from the original, I think 175 g of sugar altogether is a bit silly. 1 whole beaten egg, 200 g of plain flour, less than half a tsp of bicarb soda, then 70 g of chopped, toasted hazelnuts and 100 g of chopped milk chocolate. That made a nice, thick cookie dough, which I spooned onto the baking trays and baked for 10 minutes in 180 degrees. Once I tasted the first one, Nutella went back to the pantry, which is where it will stay for now.

Excellent cookies. 🙂

Great British summer is in full swing, 2 days of rain and gusty winds, what can one do if not bake. Butter cookies always go down well with us, so I baked the first one of 2 recipes today, the second one, with hazelnuts maybe tomorrow. Very simple recipe-200 g of softened salted butter beaten in kitchen aid with 100 g of icing sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla paste added, then 250 g of plain flour slowly in, 2 tbsps of milk. When ready, to the piping bag with a wide nozzle. Squeezing the dough onto the baking paper was quite an effort, but I managed, then baked them in 160 degrees for about 15 minutes. When cooled, they were dipped in melted white and milky chocolate.

I find them a touch too sweet, but might try to do something similar to what I bought in Italian Conad last month, butter cookies stuffed with a nice, thick frutti di bosco marmalade. Those were great. I’d just have to find a jam good enough to use for this.

The kind of bake I love to bake! Quick, easy, tastes great, seasonal. From mojewypieki.com. I intended to bake those yesterday, but as a certain Siemens engineer ruined our whole day ( failed to turn up for a SECOND appointment to install smart meters, clearly got mega bollocked by his boss after our phonecall, kindly turned up at 4pm and stayed for 1,5 hour having turned off the electricity- no oven), it all got postponed till today. Had to get more raspberries too as the child demanded some for her porridge this morning.

300 g of plain flour, 2 tsps of baking powder, 0,5 tsp of baking soda, 130 g of sugar. A zest of 1 whole lemon. 2 beaten eggs, 250 ml of natural yoghurt- that’s the only thing natural yoghurt is good for, baking, otherwise vile! :-). Half a tall glass of veg oil. All the ingredients gently and briefly mixed together, only to combine, overmixing results in muffins that are all but light. And at the end about 320 g of fresh raspberries in. Into the muffin cases, into the oven, 175 degrees, 25 minutes. Finished with a simple lemon icing- mental amount of icing sugar + lemon juice added until the texture is thick, but still runny.

5 of the muffins went to the Dewicks, as little Ruby has chicken pox.

The guest photo today is by Richard! 🙂

I was rudely awaken early this morning by the cat being sick under our bed. Sleeping was done, so having checked the news and stuff I looked at mojewypieki.com for some strawberry inspiration. My small strawberry patch in the garden is currently giving us a bowl of berries every day, the net helps to keep the birds away. I found the tart called “Truskawkowy Las” (Strawberry Forest), loved the look of it and made it for tomorrow evening, Keava and Simon will jump the fence to join us for a few glasses of wine and extras. Long overdue!

Short, chocolate pastry, quick and easy to make with kitchen aid. 160 g of plain flour, 30 g of cocoa, 60 g of icing sugar, 100 g of cold, unsalted butter and a pinch of salt. 1 whole egg brought it all together nicely. It rested in the fridge for 30 minutes, then got blind baked in 190 degrees for 10 minutes, followed by 20 minutes with no beans.

Chocolate creme pat was a first for me today, nice little number, not too chocolatey, just right. 3 egg yolks beaten well with 70 g of sugar. 20 g of both plain and potato starch added, while 300 ml of milk was getting nice and hot. Milk slowly added to the mixture, returned to the heat, stirred constantly till thickened, off the heat. 90 g of dark chocolate added, it melted quickly, needed some help of electric whisk as lumps appeared. While still warm it went onto the tart case, smoothed out, what was left in the pan was enjoyed by a certain chocolate enthusiast. 🙂

The strawberries on top are ours, as mentioned, raspberries from Co Op, mint from the garden.

Nice. 🙂

I bought some particularly delicious blueberries this morning in M&S. They taste a little like the wild blueberries available in Poland in late summer. I’ve baked a spontaneous batch of macaroons and they turned out perfect, not a single one cracked, stuck, had a boob, nothing, 3 trays of great macaroons. I filled them with a simple combination of whipped cream with blueberry puree, good splash of lemon juice really brought it together. Each macaroon has a blueberry in the middle, sitting in the nest of whipped cream. I’m really chuffed with these, so chuffed I sent a photo to Dorota from mojewypieki.com and I’m also giving 6 of them to the lovely people who deliver fresh farm eggs to us for the last couple of weeks. Brawo ja! 🙂

Shelina Permalloo’s recipe from Good Food mag.  Beautiful on the picture, even though I had no dried mango to pile up on top. I had 2 relatively ripe mangos on the windowsill and enough limes, so I baked it last night. Florek reckons it’s better the next day, I rather liked it warm after dinner last night too.

Easy. 150 g of caster sugar creamed with 150 g unsalted butter till fluffy and pale. Zest of 2 limes in.  3 whole eggs, one by one. 150 g of self raising flour. About 200 g of fresh mango, chopped in small pieces. All this into a baking tin and into a 180 degrees hot oven for about 45-50 minutes.  While it baked, a juice of 2 limes previously zested was made into a drizzling syrup, alongside 75 g of sugar, gently heated up until sugar dissolved. Right after the cake came out, I punctured it with a skewer all over and poured the syrup on top with a little help of a pastry brush.  Finally a touch of icing sugar.

I do like the limey flavour, but I was thinking a bit of custard, last night, while it was eaten slightly warm would make it a very lovely dessert. Will keep in mind for 2 loads of guests due to come over later this month.

So many things have been cooked and baked for the last 2 months, but not many deserved to be blogged about, these cookies though have to be here, the smell in the kitchen is intoxicating!

I’ve been looking for a recipe for maple cookies that would at least resemble those that Florek brought from Canada a couple of times.  Last week I pulled some recipe from the web and made half a portion, they were mediocre and turned hard within a few hours, most ended up in the bin. So I thought I’d try my regular shortbread recipe, add a splash of maple syrup and a handful of nuts and see what happens.  For about 25 small round cookies I used 110 g of plain flour, 90 g of soft butter, 40 g of sugar- less than normally, as maple syrup followed, 50 ml of it, as well as 50 g of chopped hazelnuts. Rolled into a handsome sausage with cling film and chilled for over an hour and then sliced and baked in 180 degrees for about 13 minutes.

These hardened as well as the other ones last week, but they taste of roasted nuts, butter and maple syrup. Good, but the recipe hunt  for awesome maple cookies is not over.

I saw these on tv, no recipe, but the idea appealed to me straight away. I love cinnamon, so I had to try. Made the macaroons usual way, minus the artificial colouring, but nearly 2,5 tsps of cinnamon went in. I kept on adding until I was satisfied and still managed not to overdo it. The filling took a bramley apple and one pink lady cooked down  to a pulp with some vanilla sugar, mixed with 2 gelatine leaves, then cooled. I wanted the filling to keep its shape and it did quite well, without having a jelly consistency.

The result is a bit like a crunchy apple pie, lovely, warming from the spice, crunchy from the meringue. Good one!